Deputy Director, Arts (Maternity Cover)

We are looking for a high performing and motivated individual to lead the Arts Team as a maternity leave cover for up to one year.

Responsibilities for the role include:

• Leadership of a c20 person team and a visible leadership role in the wider Culture Directorate as part of its Senior Management Team;
• Develop close and strong relationships with stakeholders across the arts sector, understanding their businesses and art forms and representing their interests across central government to improve the arts offering for citizens.
• Senior sponsorship of Arts Council England (ACE) – one of DCMS’s largest Arm’s Length Bodies. Sponsorship includes managing senior relationships and working closely with ACE on their strategic objectives and design and deliver of some of their core programmes. Sponsorship also includes oversight and assurance of their governance, budgets and representing theirs and the wider arts sectors’ interests at Spending Reviews and Fiscal events.
• Along with ACE, implementing the findings of the independent Review of the Arts Council.
• Developing future funding models and policy to ensure the sustainability of the arts sector – including acting as SRO at DCMS for a number of ACE delivered programmes, such as the £425m Creative Foundations Fund.
• Developing and delivering policy across government on core issues affecting the arts sector – including working with Department for Education on cultural education and skills policy, and on other core issues such as philanthropy, devolution, cultural taxation, among others.

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours.

To apply for this vacancy, you will need to submit the following, via the Civil Service Jobs portal, which will assessed against the essential criteria for the role:

• A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you provide employment history that relates to the essential criteria, and that any gaps in employment history within the last 2 years are explained.
• The CV should not exceed more than 2 sides of A4 and you should copy and paste your CV into the "Job History" section on Civil Service Jobs application form.
• A Statement of Suitability explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role.You must make direct reference to the essential criteria and back-up your statement with evidence rather than relying on assertions.
• This should be 2 sides of A4 and no more than a maximum of 1000 words.

For the shortlist, we will select applicants who demonstrate the best fit for the role by considering the evidence provided in your application and how this meets the essential requirements. Following the shortlist there are no further pass/fail assessment stages and all candidates shortlisted will be invited to the final interview stage.

Should you encounter any issues with your online application please get in touch with: scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.